Yolanda Machado and Edenia Fley kept hearing this from fellow moms. So the two married, stay-at-home moms started to talk with other women. A group formed. Eight of them became the organizers.

That's how 23 Spanish-speaking women gathered Tuesday, which was International Women's Day.

They call themselves MUSA, or Mujeres Saliendo Adelante, which can be translated as "women moving ahead" or "women marching forward."

It's a grass-roots effort in which women will meet every other Monday and learn from each other in Spanish. How to cook. How to sew. Maybe how to figure out their kids' education. It's also a place where they can counsel each other, said the group's president, Maria Naranjo, a mother of three.

Naranjo said the group is independent. Religious denomination doesn't matter. Nor does politics.

They met at the YWCA North Central Indiana, which simply provided the space.

Rember Orellana, 19, serves as the voice -- and the wheelchair pusher -- for her mother, Paty Fausto, whose disability makes it difficult to verbalize her thoughts.

How to find MUSA MUSA, or Mujeres Saliendo Adelante, will meet at 10 a.m. every other Monday at the YWCA North Central Indiana, 1102 S. Fellows St., South Bend. The next meeting will be this Monday, which will include a talk about nutrition and a lesson in Zumba. All meetings are in Spanish. For more information, call 574-323-7872 or send email to naranjom@att.net.

"She's been doing women's groups for a long time," Orellana said.

"I came to learn how to help women so I can help teens before they get to this age -- so they can help themselves," said Orellana, an Adams High School graduate who works as a cashier at a restaurant. "I think Hispanic teenagers need a lot of guidance. Sometimes as Hispanic women we don't have a lot of resources to go to."

Sitting next to the mother-daughter duo was another mom. She came because she has trouble communicating with her husband, a man who likes to know everything and be in control.

"You are the first teachers of your children," Liz Conner told the women in a keynote speech in Spanish. She's a retired teacher of Spanish and English as a second language.

Conner recalled how, when her son was 6, they were shopping at a market in Cancun, Mexico. She bought something from a little boy who then piped up, saying she gave him $20 too much. She rewarded his honesty by letting him keep the money.

Conner forgot about that until her son, at age 30, recalled it from memory -- and the lesson he learned.

"We don't realize the things we do," Conner said. "The children are always watching."